Peppers' agent says it's the Bears' "deal to lose"

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on March 5, 2010, 1:20 AM EDT

Roughly thirty minutes into the free agency period, the agent who represents defensive end Julius Peppers told Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times that a contract with Peppers is the Bears’ “deal to lose.”

If there was any doubt regarding the question of whether the Bears had been talking to Carey about Peppers before the period for talking to Carey about Peppers began, there should be none now. There’s no way Carey came to the conclusion that it’s anyone’s “deal to lose” in 30 minutes if there were no communications before midnight.

Let’s be clear on this. Carey has done nothing wrong by talking to teams prematurely; agents are allowed to instigate tampering. But he needs to be discreet, or he’s going to talk the Bears right into losing a draft pick or two.

And there’s more evidence of pre-midnight discussions. Lance Zierlein, who had Peppers signing with the Redskins on Thursday night (we’ll give him a pass since he nailed Haynesworth last year), reports that Bears coach Lovie Smith flew to Peppers on Thursday night. They’re flying back to Chicago together on Friday.

If nothing else, the rumors have sure generated a lot of chatter among Chicago fans. The Bears’ “Windy City Gridiron” blog (part of SB Nation) open thread on free agency has generated…lemme see…481 posts in the first hour or so since free agency has started.

Does anyone else feel this smacks of desperation? That’s quite a bag you’ll be holding when the staff is entirely fired from management down next offseason, they bring in a guy who prefers a system Peppers dislikes and demands to be traded.
Something doesn’t add up here…you have an aging defense, a lame duck staff (Martz will screw it up, just give him time. Remember, he’s an egomaniac and Lovie used to work for him), and the makings of a mess in a season or two. Great place to land, huh? I still say this doesn’t happen.

As a bears fan, I’d rather see the Bears go for Kampman and Rolle over just Peppers, but you know what? Maybe this is the turn the McCaskey’s have resisted for eons.
Your the 3rd biggest city in America, arguably the largest single NFL market (since New York has 2 teams and LA 0), it’s amazing that ownership in Chicago has such a love of penny pinching.
It’s an uncapped year, you have some aging yet still talented players. If you couple Peppers with a veteran addition at CB/S, Chester Taylor, and a guy to play left guard or right tackle, I think this team could look pretty good. I intentionally omitted WR from that checklist because this team was worse at physically playing the other team last year than it was running routes and catching balls. I’d rather trust the young and unproven on the peripheries and put my trust in veterans to win the war in the trenches.

I hope Peppers gets signed to a sh*t team for less money than the Panthers tried to give him last year. Born and raised in NC, with the good fortune to be able to play for the home team, which, while they aren’t the best, they’re certainly more competitive than half the teams in the league. I hate when players chase money.
His days of making 18 mil. a year are over. He needs to realize it and move on.
Of course, if he had a change of heart and stayed with the Panthers, I’d be happy too.